In recent years, while electronic circuit boards vary in sizes widely from a small size type including a portable telephone to a large size board such as a server computer or the like, it is being required to produce them most efficiently in a minimum process time. As a form of a mounting apparatus, a robot-type mounting apparatus, in which a working head for sucking electronic components is moved by using an XY robot to mount the electronic components, is becoming mainstream.
Hereafter, an example of a conventional electronic component mounting apparatus is explained with reference to FIG. 35.
In the figure, reference numerals 1201, 1202 and 1203 denote component feed units for taping components. Reference numeral 204 denotes a component feed unit for components housed on a tray. Reference numeral 1204 denotes a component feed unit for components housed on a tray. Reference numerals 1205 and 1206 denote recognition cameras for picking up an image of a suction attitude of an electronic component in a working head before mounted. Reference numeral 1207 denotes a nozzle station for housing a plurality of kinds of nozzles suitable for a plurality of kinds of electronic components. Reference numeral 1208 denotes a loader for carrying an electronic circuit board 1211 into a component mounting work area. Reference numeral 1209 denotes a board conveying/holding device composed of support rails 1209a, 1209b for supporting an electronic circuit board 1212. The board conveying/holding device 1209 is constituted such that one support rail 1209b can be moved as far as a position 1210 according to the maximum size of the electronic circuit board to be applied. Reference numeral 1213 denotes an unloader for carrying the electronic circuit board 1211 out of the component mounting work area.
Operations in the conventional electronic component mounting apparatus are explained with reference to FIG. 35. An electronic circuit board 1211 is supported by support rails 1209a, 1209b via a loader 1208. A working head (not shown) is moved by an XY robot along a path shown with A in FIG. 35. An electronic component is sucked by a component suction nozzle attached to the working head from a taping component feed unit 1201. The working head is moved and a suction attitude of the sucked component is measured by a recognition camera 1205. After the calculation for a position correction, the sucked and recognized component is mounted onto the electronic circuit board 1212 by movement of the working head while its position is corrected. Meanwhile, a component feed unit for feeding electronic components is also disposed in the rear of the component mounting work area of the mounting apparatus as shown with reference numerals 1203 and 1204. An image of an electronic component sucked from the taping component feed unit 1203 or the components housed on a tray 1204 is also picked up by a recognition camera 1206 so that its attitude at a suction position is recognized. After the calculation for a position correction, the sucked and recognized component is mounted onto the electronic circuit board 1212 by a nozzle. This path is shown with B.
In recent years, electronic circuit boards vary from a small size type to a large size type. In an electronic component mounting apparatus, support rails 1209a, 1209b are designed in a size in which a board of up to the maximum size can be supported. Therefore, the support rails 1209a, 1209b are constituted such that the support rail 1209a on the front side of the mounting apparatus is fixed while the support rail 1209b in the rear can be moved depending on the board size. Consequently, the component feed units 1203, 1204 in the rear are disposed further behind the furthest rear position 1210 of the support rail 1209b. In a small size board, this seriously hinders reduction of a mounting time since the moving distance of the working head from suction of the electronic component to mounting through recognition is increased, resulting in the longer moving time as shown with path B. While the mounting time needs to be reduced to reduce costs of mounting electronic components, the distances between three processes, that is, a suction process, recognition process, and mounting process of electronic components needs to be minimized to reduce this mounting time. To minimize the distances between the three processes, there is a method of integrally moving support rails 1209a, 1209b, support pins which are disposed below the support rails 1209a, 1209b and support the electronic circuit board from downward, and a support plate, on which the support pins are disposed, depending on the electronic component to be fed. However, a mechanism for moving the support pins and the support plate is required and the movement amount of these members itself is little. Thus, this method is not very effective. In view of the mounting quality, moving the electronic circuit board more than necessary during component mounting is not a good method.
Accordingly, the object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for conveying and holding a plate-like member, wherein the plate-like member can be carried in to a conveying position and then moved to a desired work position to perform a desired work efficiently while being held irrespective of the size of the plate-like member and, after the desired work, can be moved to a conveying position and carried out so that the plate-like member is carried in, held, and carried out efficiently and rapidly, and thus the above issue is solved.
Furthermore, the present invention provides a component mounting apparatus equipped with the plate-like member conveying/holding device as a board conveying/holding device, wherein the moving distances of a component holding member between component holding, component recognition, and component mounting can be reduced irrespective of the size of the board to shorten the mounting time and thereby improve mounting efficiency.